Growing evidence suggests that epigenetic profile changes occurring during fetal development in response to in utero environment variations could be one of the mechanisms involved in the early determinants of adult chronic diseases. In this study, we tested whether maternal glycemic status is associated with the adiponectin gene (ADIPOQ) DNA methylation profile in placenta tissue, in maternal c...

Prenatal life is the most sensitive stage of human development to environmental pollutants. Early exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) may increase the risk of adverse health effects during childhood. The mechanisms of transference of POPs during pregnancy are still not well understood. The present study is aimed to investigate the transfer of POPs between mother and fetus. The conc...

Although the importance of methyl metabolism in fetal development is well recognized, there is limited information on the dynamics of methionine flow through maternal and fetal tissues and on how this is related to circulating total homocysteine concentrations. Rates of homocysteine remethylation in maternal and fetal tissues on days 11, 19, and 21 of gestation were measured in pregnant rats fe...

Background: Placenta accreta is one of the known causes of maternal mortality and morbidity. If diagnosed before delivery, appropriate actions can be taken. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of scaling combination of risk factors in predicting placenta accreta spectrum (PAS). Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 120 pregnant women with two criteria and more of placenta previ...

The present study was undertaken to assess the metabolism of radiolabeled pregnenolone in the placenta throughout pregnancy in organ culture. The product generated from pregnenolone was only progesterone regardless of the weeks of gestation. The amount of progesterone formed by the placenta was 5.60 +/- 0.15 x 10(-11) moles/mg protein/hour in the 1st trimester (n = 4), 6.47 +/- 0.09 x 10(-11) m...

F etal cells are consistently found in the maternal circulation, and polymerase chain reaction based studies have led to the identification of cell free fetal DNA (fetal DNA) in maternal blood. Approximately 1.2 nucleated fetal cells/ml of whole blood from women carrying a male fetus were detectable, and relative enrichment of fetal DNA was detected in the maternal plasma and serum. The amount ...

The maternal portion of the bovine placenta receives blood mainly from the uterine arteries (AUT) and the fetal portion from the umbilical arteries (AUM). Placental perfusion is crucial for fetal development and undergoes adaptive changes during pregnancy according to the fetal requirements. One goal of this study was to investigate changes in Doppler sonographic measurements of blood vessels t...

BACKGROUND System L transporters LAT1 (SLC7A5) and LAT2 (SLC7A8) mediate the uptake of large, neutral amino acids in the human placenta. Many System L substrates are essential amino acids, thus representing crucial nutrients for the growing fetus. Both LAT isoforms are expressed in the human placenta, but the relative contribution of LAT1 and LAT2 to placental System L transport and their subce...

The retention of foetal membranes (RFM) is supposed to be related to oxidative stress which can be evaluated through indirect and direct parameters, among others, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and lipid peroxidation intensity (LPI). Placental samples (maternal and foetal parts) were collected from Holstein-Friesian healthy cows immediately after caesarean section (n = 13, group A) at time or...

F etal cells are consistently found in the maternal circulation, and polymerase chain reaction based studies have led to the identification of cell free fetal DNA (fetal DNA) in maternal blood. Approximately 1.2 nucleated fetal cells/ml of whole blood from women carrying a male fetus were detectable, and relative enrichment of fetal DNA was detected in the maternal plasma and serum. The amount ...